Powdered beverage mixes, such as KOOL-AID® and TANG®, have been commercially available for many years. They are relatively long shelf life, stable products that are reconstituted from the dry mixes when desired without the need to handle and transport the bulk fluid carrier. Powdered beverage products generally are an alternative product choice for consumers with so-called ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage products. RTD beverages offer a consumer a different form of convenience because the consumer does not need to formulate the drink from powder and water before consuming it. Beyond these differences, the conventional reconstituted powdered beverages and RTD beverages are often very similar to consumers. The food and beverage industry would be interested in novelties that can be introduced in powdered beverage mixes to help differentiate these product lines and spark consumer interest in powdered beverage mixes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,794 describes a powdered composition containing an anthraquinonoid compound, one or more organic acids, and one or more alkaline salts, wherein the organic acids or alkaline salts are coated with water soluble substance so that the pH of the solution in which the powdered composition is placed can be changed, thereby varying the color of the anthraquinonoid in solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,235 describes cereals and confections which change color on contact with an aqueous liquid (e.g., milk). The cereal or confection particles are coated with a water soluble liquid which allows an edible opaque powder (e.g., sugar, starch, titan white) to adhere to the particles and obscure the underlying color. When placed in an aqueous environment, the underlying color is exposed, thereby changing the color.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,481 provides a method for making novelty ice cubes that change color when melting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,901 provides a frozen confectionery product which changes color as it melts. In one embodiment, the color change is effected by changes in the pH as the product melts. In another embodiment, colorants are contained in coating layers and are released by the consumer licking the confectionery.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,821 provides a food composition having the ability to change color when heated above 160° F.
PCT International Application PCT/US01/20260 provides ingestible compositions, including food products, beverages, and medicaments, which undergo a chromic change in response to a triggering event (e.g., storage temperature, cooking temperature, light exposure, pH change, hydration or solvation change, mechanic stress, and the like). Thus, the product changes color in response to environmental cues and can alert the consumer that such triggering events have, or are, occurring.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,535 describes an edible confection with a recognizable shape that repeatedly rises and sinks in a transparent carbonated beverage due to its changing buoyancy resulting from physical attachment of carbonation bubbles derived from the beverage onto the surface of the confection until it becomes buoyant enough to cause it to rise to the surface of the beverage where the attached bubbles escape to the atmosphere causing the confection to become less buoyant such that it descends back towards the bottom of the drink; the attachment of carbonation bubbles begins again, and the confection's motion cycle repeats itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,138 describes dry carbonating agents comprised of a carbohydrate/metal bicarbonate complex prepared by reacting a carbohydrate in aqueous solution with metal hydroxide or oxide at a temperature not exceeding 25° C. to form a carbohydrate/metal hydroxide adduct to which carbon dioxide is then introduced to form the complex, which is dried for use in beverage powders. Upon rehydration, the complex releases carbon dioxide and carbonates the beverage. The carbohydrates are described as mono-, di-, and polysaccharides and polyols.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,106,883 and 5,562,939 describe inclusions suspended within a liquid, in which the inclusions are pieces of a jelly-like substance described as fruit pulp cells, fruit pulp particles, fruit pieces, gold particles, droplets of flavoring, or clouding agents. A pre-gel solution containing gellan gum is incorporated into a liquid composition with the inclusions. The resulting suspending solution is then agitated to suspend the inclusions such that they do not float or sink.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,326 describes a fruit flavored dry beverage mix which comprises sugar, food acid, flavor, color, and a clouding agent obtained by co-drying an aqueous dispersion comprising a major amount of solubilized maltodextrin and a minor amount of xanthan gum and titanium dioxide.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,365,209 describes an encapsulated product in the form of a caplet containing an active ingredient that can be incorporated into a food item, soft confectionary product, hard confectionary product, jelly gum confectionary product, dry beverage, or chewing gum product.
There remains a need for improved approaches for introducing components in food products that provide a more stimulating visual impact upon the consumer to increase the consumer's enjoyment of the beverage.
The present invention fulfills these, as well as other needs and objectives, as will be apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention.